Tuesday, November 28, 2006

November 28, 1950

From the front page of the Waterloo Daily Courier

New War Started: MacArthurCharges Red China with agressionAsks UN what step to takeEarnest RoberechtTokyo (UP)A horde of 200, 000 Chinese communists swarmed over North Korea Tuesday, threatening to trap desperately fighting Allies in an offensive which Gen. Douglas MacArthur said marked the start of "an entirely new war." The Chinese, pouring like locusts over the countryside as far as the human eye could see, ripped through a widening hole torn in the right flank of the UN line. They could be seen along "every road, every gulley and every ridgeline," a First corps spokesman said. As the Chinese seized the offensive and rocked the Allies back on the defensive, MacArthur issued a bristling statement accusing the Chinese of hurling the major part of their fighting force against the UN. MacArther said China's full-scale intervention the the Korean war posed issues behond his authority and asked the UN what they wanted to do about it.

Hopes of Ending War Shattered. In a special signed communique, he said Red China had shattered his "high hopes" of an early end to the Korean war that would get American troops "home by Christmas." There was no doubt that the Chinese assault had caused a crisis. [snip] The ground forces called for desperately needed air support, and Allied planes went out to pour bullets and bombs on the Communist flood. But they could not stem the Red tide.